Brief

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

9/11/02, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 8:23 PM CET

Brussels lobbying is often a cloak and dagger affair where deals are struck behind closed doors or over the restaurant table. So hats off to the European Banking Federation for being more up front in their attempts to get into new Single Market DG Alex Schaub’s good books. The bankers are holding a welcome party for the former head of competition policy at the plush Cercle Gaulois in Brussels on 1 October.But they are not forgetting his predecessor John Mogg, who is leaving the Commission. He is invited along as co-guest of honour.

There is something splendidly parochial about the state-aid investigation launched last week by the European Commission’s competition department into JC Decaux, a French advertising company. The question …